Apocalypse

Monday, January 10, 2011

Quarter Century Review: The Ultimate Sin

Ozzy OsbourneThe Ultimate Sin
Epic
Produced by Ron Nevison

I found listening to this album as a pleasant surprise. I always regarded The Ultimate Sin to be terrible other than "Shot In The Dark," and "Lightning Strikes,". While the rest of the album isn't great, it is passable. And when compared to the next album, "No Rest For The Wicked", it's brilliant.

Jake E. Lee's guitar work is impeccable, as usual, as is the late great Randy Castillo (his first with Ozzy) on drums. Ozzy was pretty consumed with drugs at this point (he did snort ants, for heaven's sake) but that doesn't seem to effect his performance. Bassists in Ozzy's band have usually been interchangable but Phil Soussan did co-write "Shot In The Dark,". Because of legal issues with Soussan (is there anyone Ozzy and Sharon haven't forced into legal action), the album is out-of-print.

No question the 2 hit singles did positively impact the grade of this album and, if not for those two songs, the album would not be terribly missed. Even with that...